Denny Hamlin, the series’ most recent winner heading into the Bristol race weekend, appeared to have made the move of the race when a two-tire call under caution at lap 417 put him out front for the subsequent restart.
The lead was short-lived. Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road, something that’s been the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s Achilles heel, and forced to give up the valuable track position.
He did manage to rally and finish fifth, however.
“I screwed up our strategy on pit lane,” Hamlin admitted. “We’ll get it cleaned up. Just got to work through all the kinks and clean stuff up.
“We didn’t have a race-winning car. Top-five finish with a car that probably shouldn’t have been there is a good day.”
Hamlin won the season-opening Daytona 500 as well as last weekend’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. The TMS win came after he rallied from a, you guessed it, pit road speeding penalty.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.